JPMorgan Chase shows that two CEOs can be better than one.

In the past two years, it has come as a rude awakening to many among us that on Wall Street, things are not always as they seem. Packages of debt deemed AAA quality by the rating agencies, for example, proved to be nothing more than collections of dross. Companies that seemed on the surface to be one thing—Citigroup (C), the paragon of consumer banking stability—proved to be something else entirely-Citigroup, the ticking time bomb of risk management gone awry.

Other things have remained reassuringly constant. Paramount among them: the fact that Wall Street chieftains seem congenitally incapable of sharing power at the top. Whether they're going to take their firm to great heights or drive it right smack into a wall, financial CEOs prefer to go it alone. Their desire for solo glory aside, such a preference is not entirely misplaced. History is littered with failed partnerships at the top of the industry's leading firms.

For that reason, the success of JPMorgan Chase's (JPM) investment bank in the past several years comes as a surprise. Led by co-CEOs Steve Black and Bill Winters, the investment banking and derivatives powerhouse has of late displaced Goldman Sachs (GS) as the most talked-about—and feared—force on Wall Street.

While their success has been somewhat overshadowed by the attention paid to their boss—JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon—Black and Winters have proven the exception to two rules. The first: that Goldman always wins. In the full year 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, JPMorgan supplanted Goldman atop the industry's most important capital-raising league tables. The second: that co-CEO structures are doomed from the start. While nothing is guaranteed, the JPMorgan bosses have shown that you can share and still win at the top of Wall Street. In this, though, they are unique. You want proof? Read on. 

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PARTNERS: Steve Black and Bill Winters, JPMorgan, 2004-present